2020 · Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association · open access
HbA<sub>1c</sub> determination from HemaSpot™ blood collection devices: comparison of home prepared dried blood spots with standard venous blood analysis
Hall et al.
The finding, in our words
HbA1c measured from self-collected HemaSpot dried blood spots showed strong linear agreement with venous blood and was stable over time. With high patient acceptance, this supports remote diabetes monitoring for people in decentralised care models.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Home DBS sampling gave testosterone results that agreed well with venous blood in men on intramuscular testosterone undecanoate, but showed falsely high values in those using topical gel, likely from skin contamination. Patients preferred home collection for its convenience, suggesting DBS is viable for decentralised monitoring of injectable testosterone if patients are taught proper technique.
The study found that dried blood spot sampling showed good agreement with plasma concentrations for vancomycin and creatinine, with most differences within 20%, and patients preferred the finger prick method over venepuncture, supporting its use for decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring.
Dried blood spot sampling matched venous serum performance for islet autoantibody detection and was considered minimally invasive and convenient by parents and stakeholders, supporting its use for decentralised screening in home or community settings.
Older adults achieved 98% adherence when self-collecting dried blood spots at home for inflammatory markers, with 97% of samples yielding valid results. Test-retest reliability was good (ICCs 0.70–0.76) and correlation with venous blood was strong (r=0.60–0.99), demonstrating that remote capillary sampling is a feasible and valid method for decentralised assessment of inflammation in older adults.
VAMS microsampling found no significant difference from venous blood for tacrolimus in paediatric patients; samples were stable for 14 days, with average difference between paired at-home samples of 0.12 ± 0.94 ng/mL.